> I've never seen a case where the actor model actually helped with the business problem.
I've inherited and built some actor based applications and libraries, both in Erlang and .NET (via Akka.NET). Usually these systems are:
- heavily Domain/event driven
- have 'funnel points' (example; bids on specific cars)
- have strong (but not extreme) requirements around consistent, fast response.
- be reasonably maintainable without a whole lot of gotchas
In all cases the actor model was the easiest way to solve the problems presented. That last point may be a bit contentious, but what every shop I've been at has found that while sometimes domain evolution results in extra boilerplate code to handle different versions of events, it is usually not the same sort of nightmare to do larger redesigns of the system as it ages and needs evolve.
> Every time I saw Akka used, replacing it with straightforward Futures-and-for/yield code was an improvement.
I'll admit I've over-used Akka.NET from time to time. I'd say the most overkill case is 'I need background workers running on timers with automatic recovery.'
I've inherited and built some actor based applications and libraries, both in Erlang and .NET (via Akka.NET). Usually these systems are:
- heavily Domain/event driven
- have 'funnel points' (example; bids on specific cars)
- have strong (but not extreme) requirements around consistent, fast response.
- be reasonably maintainable without a whole lot of gotchas
In all cases the actor model was the easiest way to solve the problems presented. That last point may be a bit contentious, but what every shop I've been at has found that while sometimes domain evolution results in extra boilerplate code to handle different versions of events, it is usually not the same sort of nightmare to do larger redesigns of the system as it ages and needs evolve.
> Every time I saw Akka used, replacing it with straightforward Futures-and-for/yield code was an improvement.
I'll admit I've over-used Akka.NET from time to time. I'd say the most overkill case is 'I need background workers running on timers with automatic recovery.'